La Fidélité

When I first heard André Saraiva and Lionel Bensemoun (the guys behind Le Baron, Paris’s hippest night club for the n-teenth year running) had opened a restaurant called La Fidélité I was skeptical. Not that these guys weren’t visionaries or had good taste or couldn’t pull it off. (Hell, they’ve killed it since in Pigalle with their Hotel D’amour and Chez Moune their sister nightclub.) It’s just in general I like to keep my food and clubbing separate.

But then I found out La Fidélité was in my neighborhood, which suddenly changed everything. Now I HAD to go. Not just because of the satisfaction of knowing I lived in "ze new place to be," but out of obligation as well. Bobos feel they must frequent neighborhood restos, as a way to give back to their community. We make it sound like we’re saving the whales or sheltering the homeless, when all we’re really doing is drinking near home.

La Fidélité has a great space going for it. And Lionel and Andre have used that space wisely. Most of the new restaurants I’ve been to in Paris are small, where tables are crammed together, where the emphasis is clearly on the food and making you feel lucky you even got a table (because look how crowded we are!). And it gets tiring listening to the conversation of the table next to yours (especially when it’s more interesting) or being shushed because you’re too loud (which happens quite often to me actually.)

Hence why La Fidélité’s high ceiling, moldings, mirrors on the walls, proper table spacing, and its soft but apparent din was refreshing. I was also served a generous whiskey (which isn’t often the case in Paris) before ordering, which made the whole ambiance come together better (weird how that happens.).

Ambiance I knew was Andre and Lionel’s specialty, but what really surprised me was the food from their recently-hired chef. They make a great duck terrine for starters and any American worth his salt can’t pass on poached egg with truffles or the Utah Beach oysters, unless you’re scared it’ll have a dog tag in it. My entrec&#xF4;te with sea salt was no Peter Luger, but it was tasty and moist and not too chewy. My friends had steamed haddock, which they adored and my wife—I can’t remember what she ordered. I never remember what my wife orders.

No, La Fidélité isn’t culinary craziness. And frankly I’m getting a bit annoyed by that anyway. It seems every new restaurant nowadays HAS to celebrate the chef and every meal has to have this new divine experimental quality to it with organic this and farm raised that. What often ends up getting lost in between is a time well spent talking and eating and laughing and drinking. La Fidélité isn’t going to wow you gastronomically, but that was never Lionel’s and Andre’s intention I don’t think (and the earlier critiques on the food missed that.)

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t want to eat a show for 30 bucks either. I just want what the French call "correct". Meaning I get to dine in an eye-candy atmosphere, with a solid meal and a cool Burgundy pinot noir that goes well with fish or meat. And if I go to the bathroom afterwards and discover a little bar down below where you can drink what the French call a "digestif," correct suddenly changes into pretty fucking great. C’est vrai. In the basement of La Fidélité; you can sit on a chesterfield couch, drink a cognac, and smoke. Smoke? Yes. I don’t know how they do it legally, but they do it. And the fact that they do it, well, that just adds to the allure .

It’s a place that says F-you to the preciousness of chef-ordained dainty cuisine, with its Taliban mico-organic no fun rules. Andre and Lionel have a neo-bistro with old school objectives. A place to dine with friends then get your swerve on (pronounced "swareve.") downstairs. A place that reminds you why foodie towns like Seattle or Portland at times still feel like nerdy cafeterias compared to Paris. Fine you had your line-caught bass on a bed of organic cilantro risotto. Did you have a memorable time? I did.

And since it’s in my hood, I plan to return fairly soon. Next time with a lot of friends &#x2013; just so someone can save me a spot on the couch downstairs while I take dessert.

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